Why on earth would anyone self-publish a book?

10 or 15 years ago, self-publishing was the stupidest idea any writer could come up with.  I remember reading a silly children’s book, The Great Mom Swap, where one of the characters has dreams of publishing a book…and is then devastated when she realizes the publisher who has noticed her is a vanity press, meaning they want her to pay a ton of money to print her book, without any distribution whatsoever.

That is what self-publishing used to look like: authors wanted to see their name on a book cover, and didn’t realize that a genuine publishing company was necessary to actually sell that book.

But things have changed a lot in 15 years.  For one, the internet has become the biggest marketing platform ever to exist.  Now, if a customer wants to find your book, they don’t have to walk into Barnes and Noble.  They can just order it on Amazon.

I’m not saying publishing houses are outdated.  They’re not.  If you want your book to get major bookstore distribution, a publisher is your best bet.  And no Amazon service can replace the benefits of a professional editor, proofreader, and cover designer.

However, there are actually some downfalls to traditional publishing.  I definitely hope to be published by a traditional house someday, especially when I am ready to unveil my epic fantasy world, but even with a traditional publishing house, I can’t escape the fact that I am woefully ignorant in the ways of book-marketing.

That’s one big problem authors face even when their books are traditionally published–they assume the publisher will do all of the marketing and promotional work for them, when this really just leads to your book sliding by unnoticed.  Whether you’re self-published or traditionally published, most of the marketing burden falls on your shoulders.

The Natural Order is a chance to educate myself, to see what works and what doesn’t.

And here are a few reasons why self-publishing can actually be better than traditional publishing:

The biggest one, for me, is that when your book is traditionally published, you have no way of seeing the results of your marketing efforts…until months after they have happened.  If your publisher hosts a big giveaway or contest, or you go on a book tour, or you invest in a paid placement, how can you tell if the money and time was well-spent?  With traditional publishing, you can’t.  You can only see results in the form of infrequent royalty checks, which might speak more about a general trend than about the success of a particular effort.  As a self-publisher, you can track your sales in every form on a day-to-day basis, which shows you whether sales spiked after a particular event or just grew (or declined!) in a general trend.  That way you can give up on marketing efforts that didn’t work, and invest more in the ones that produced results.
You can’t be lazy.  With no publisher to supposedly market your book, you have no excuse to sit around and wait for sales.  It’s up to you to build the buzz, find people who care, and make it happen.
You could make more money from each book sale!  This is only helpful if your book sells well, though, because a traditional publisher gives you an advance payment whether or not your book sells.
You get to design the cover.  Whether that’s a good or bad thing can be left up to debate, but I know many authors wish they could design their own covers.  Instead, most of them aren’t even given a choice in the matter.  Even your title could be changed!  I’m betting most writers would benefit from a publisher-designed cover, but who hasn’t dreamed of putting their own cover on a book?

By the way, rjvickers.com is currently being redesigned–stay on the lookout for the fancy new site!  And when it is unveiled, I’ll add a few exclusive goodies on the site!